Elon Musk Becomes the First Person Ever to Lose More Than $200 Billion

Elon Musk became the second person, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to accumulate a fortune of more than $200 billion (about 250 trillion won).

And now, he has reportedly become the first person ever to lose a fortune of more than $200 billion. As Tesla’s (TSLA) share price has plunged in recent months, his net worth has fallen to $137 billion.

As a result, he has also stepped down from the top spot as the world’s richest person. His net worth peaked at $340 billion in November 2021, and since then about $200 billion in asset value has evaporated.

The world’s richest person is now Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury conglomerate LVMH.

Volatility in the major indices was high, but on a weekly basis they posted a relatively modest decline.

Most of the major indices edged down or were essentially flat: the S&P 500 (-0.10%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.40%), Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.18%), and Russell 2000 (+0.00%).

In the end, the much-anticipated “Santa rally” failed to materialize.

With the market barely moving, the gap between the best- and worst-performing sectors did not widen much.

Materials (-1.07%) and consumer staples (-0.84%), which had been in a solid uptrend recently, led the decline, while only financials (+0.74%), energy (+0.47%), and communication services (+0.40%) posted modest gains.

However, given how little the market moved overall, it is hard to draw any meaningful conclusions simply from which sectors were up or down.

Looking at year-to-date returns by sector, we can see that the declines in communication services, consumer discretionary, and information technology—sectors packed with stocks favored by retail investors—were particularly steep in 2022.

The Federal Reserve’s rapid rate hikes were especially harsh on companies that had been trading at very rich valuations.

Excluding the energy sector, utilities, consumer staples, and healthcare still managed to deliver relatively solid results. All three sectors did end the year in negative territory, but at the end of the day, markets are all about relative performance.

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